yeah don't jump the gun there. no overlap on a mtb frame. i enjoy the 700 up front and the 26 on the rear. the turning radius is good and the acceleration is great. i'm designing and building my own frame in the very near future.

700's are just as manueuverable as 26's. As timtim pointed out, tire size can make your 26's as large as 700's. I prefer 700's because of frame choices. I'd rather ride something with a steeper headtube than a raked-out MTB. With trick track frames starting to flood the market, toeverlap is not an issue with longer top tubes, and are unbelievably nimble. But, to each their own.

-700c can handle like a 26" when the tires are close in size. I believe a 26 x 2.3" was mentioned before. A 26 x 1 - 1.75" will handle much better because the center of gravity is lower and your axles can be close together creating a tighter turning radius.
-Also if you pin identical gear ratios against each on different wheel sizes, you'll find that the smaller wheels will have more acceleration than larger wheels. When most standard courts aren't long enough to reap the benefits the speed of 700c's, you must error on the side of acceleration and handling to win games.

Good points tucker. I still really like my 1x1 it handles really well for me, I can whip it around really easily. My prior bike was a 700c road bike frame, I didn't like the handling as much, and I really didn't like the toe overlap.
Skid & Destroy
Axles of Evil

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Well, I used to ride 700c on my MTB frame just because it was the wheelset I had and I broke the road frame they were on and then got my current polo frame. I liked it because they closed up the 5-hole tremendously, but once I put 26" wheels on it and, most likely because that's what it was intended to take, it handles much better. I also like being a bit lower to the ground. While it's probably not a huge difference, I can feel it and my center of gravity is a bit lower and more balanced.

Yep I have considered this as well and thinking of going with 10" wheels on a folding bike .. but really i haven't seen a huge difference in strength between a 26" or 700c .. the Velocity deep v's hold up extremely well and wheel shields will only make it better .. stop ramming into each other and its not such a issue anymore .. I think the last 2 times my front wheel got warped was from full on ram-jams with 3 or more players in a polo-clusterfuck .. and that only happens when we drink like super heros and play polo like The Mesoamerican ballgame the Myans played and losers get their heads chopped off.

This indicates there were more than two times. I've only ever had one wheel severely tacoed and it was when I foolishly ran into someone semi-perpendicular at FULL speed (and there were broken spokes, it was already untrue, etc.). I assure you the difference in strength between 700c and 26" is NOT negligible. I now run 48hole on both the front and the rear and they are laced to Chukkers. They are bombproof.

..well it prolly is more then 2 times ..we do drink a lot here sheesh .. but I am talking about minor warps .. nothing that would prevent me from playing ..I had more damage done to my derailleur then my wheels .. mostly from Kent pretending hes a monster truck and riding over me ..

if your gonna play bike polo you have to accept that shit might get broken .. I shake my head when I see a $2000 fixe out on the court ..

26". high flange DH or trials hubs. double or triple wall DH rims. 2.1 tires. I like the bontrager comfort hardcase tires. Been riding them since august and haven't flatted yet. They're pretty good on ice too. This setup can be kind of heavy but it's worth the sacrifice. I shelled out the $70 for a WTB laserdisc DH rim for the front and I laced it to a Echo trials hub. It's surprisingly light(although only come in 32h) and it's damn near impossible to knock out of true. Sure beats the countless $30 rims I've replaced after 3 weeks of constant truing before inevitable total destruction. I haven't trued it since I first laced it up. Only replaced busted spokes. still rolls perfectly.

I'm in the early stages of getting a custom polo bike built, by early I mean I don't know whether to go 700 or 26. I've been a 700 polo rider from the beginning but after browsing past posts 26" may be the way to go for a custom frame. Is there anyone out there that has made the 700 to 26" leap after being a lifer to the road wheel? Was is a good choice or did you hate it?

My 2c: borrow/build/buy a production 26" bike and then tell the builder how you want it changed.

... Not that you care that I can't afford it, but if I had the cash or connection to be thinking about a custom polo frame, I'd take something I already love and ask the builder to tweak it little ways to make it just right.

I started with 700c, really liked it. But broke it / wheels too many times.

Went to 26", really liked it. But the axles were a little far a part (ye olde 5 hole) and then the headset gave up.

Went back to 700c. Blew up another good 36hole wheel. Rebuilt it with a 36 chukker, and I have to say it's robust! So that's what I'm riding.

Anyway, if I went custom 26" I'd get couplers, ~1" shorter wheelbase, and more setback for the seat tube.

I rode 700's for years on my polo bike and switched to 26's when i got a joust. I like them for a few reasons, a few i didn't think that it would influence. Most of all the clearance to go in front of your front wheel with a mallet, which i've been using more and more to cross over for passes and shots. The tight angles of the frame help with this also, but the wheel size has more to do with the amount of clearance. They are a little lighter than 700's considering the spoke legnth and loss of rim material, which means less rotational mass and a quicker wheel. I have chukkers laced four cross with 36 DT Swiss 2.0mm spokes to white industry track hubs. They are really light for how much abuse they have taken, i think i have trued them twice since i built them about a year ago. They do however open your five hole. All things in consideration i like 26's for polo. Get that frame bulder to make a reinforced yoke and up the wall thickness on the seat stays a little bit to keep that rear end stiff, the joust is a little whippy even with my weight.

To me the smaller wheels are easier to maneuver the ball around. I like that when I have the ball and maybe even sometimes when I'm playing defense or receiving a pass. When I'm in goal I think, if my wheels where bigger could probably block more shots.

So how are people feeling about 26 vs 700 these days? There sure seemed to be a lot of 700c (with front disc brake) at the pointy end of Podium in the 2013 NAHBPC. With the growing number of Jousts, Max Power, Rustbelt and Peruvian made frames with 26" wheels in the field I was surprised to see mostly 700c wheels finishing high up on the tables. I am considering getting one of the peruvian frames (either directly from Velolucuma or Hija de la Coneja) to join the ranks of smaller wheels (and cheap couplings) but apart from still loving my Scrambler I'm wondering if 700c is better suited to how we play the game currently? Or is it just a coincidence that most of our best teams (this year...) seem to prefer 700?

Well, I think the 26" trend has been a little ahead in Europe, than NA (purely based on my observation at tournaments), and you simply have a high proportion of 700c in NA, than here. Here lots of the top players are riding 26". So it may just be a numbers thing.

But interestingly, lots of players are starting to switch back to 700c.

And some companies who were 26" only, are now launching 700c versions.

I think it really depends on your style of play, but also your height. For tall players the 700c proportions are probably going to work better than 26". But if you are a really manoeuvrable player, 26 will give you a shorter wheelbase.

For the new Magic bikes, we are doing 26" S & M, and 700c L

Personally I'm going to keep my current Max Power L 26", and build up my Magic L 700c as another polo bike, and then swap between them, depending how I feel.

things may have changed as the NAH ruleset / guidelines become more universal, but in 2010, north america, in general, had larger courts than europe. smaller wheels and wheelbases are definitely better for smaller courts.

I would normally have agreed with you (Josh) on that. However after watching teams like the Assassins play a very nimble game on 700, and The Break Necks play a very fast game on 26" I'm not so sure. I really don't know, but I am interested in other opinions about it.

And now that you've opened the Magic box, what's in it? (Who wouldn't want to say their bike was a Magic bike?)

From reading old posts here I got the feeling that, on the East coast anyway, that mountain bikes were the thing early on. I feel like the UK was big on old track frames 5 or so years ago. But I'm certainly not being scientific about that. I agree that rider height (and maybe body geometry, by that I mean where the body mass is distributed relative to the hip joints) will be a significant factor in wheel size choice, but perhaps only at the extremes?

I would imagine that a lot of the people on the podium at NAHBPC have been playing quite a while, and the 26" trend is relatively new. People tend to stick with what they know, so it makes sense you see as many 700c's up there as you do. The podium may look a lot different when the newer players, starting out on 26" get better and better.

I also agree with the sentiment about taller players and 700c. I'm 6' tall, riding a 26' PoLoLoco and I'm not sure it makes a whole lot of sense for me yet. Really sucks in goal as well.

This debate is still doing my head in. We tend to player on smaller courts in Australia so it makes sense to go for 26 for that but I am just short of 6ft which is on the taller side (but I am very skinny/light) which points to 700c.

My current and first 'polo' bike has a 700c rear with a 26 wheel on the front so I have never really had experience one way or the other.